South Africa's Smith takes an early swipe at rival skipper Collingwood

The incident was a gift for Smith, who had an opportunity to engage in a little psychological warfare on the first full day of the tour.

Taunton taunting: Smith warms up on Thursday

After the Proteas blew away the cobwebs with a practice session at Taunton, Smith was asked whether Collingwood should consider resigning. ‘That is a difficult question for me to answer,’ he said. ‘I guess it all depends on how he feels, if he feels he can take the captaincy forward after that and still have the respect to do that.

‘Those are questions he needs to look at himself. I know as captain he probably didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. These things can weigh pretty heavily on your shoulders.’

When pressed on what he would have done in the same circumstances, Smith added: ‘As a team, we’d like to think we would have gone with the spirit of cricket. But who knows?

‘It is easy just to say it was an accident. I guess we’ve all got to look at the bigger picture. The challenge for us captains is to make the right decisions in big pressure moments. I guess we all live or die by our decisions. I feel for both parties (Collingwood and Daniel Vettori) in many ways. Both have been quite manly in owning up and apologising.’

Smith, 27, has moulded a ferociously competitive team but he insisted they would be aiming to stay on the right side of the line between commitment and over-zealous aggression in the coming weeks. ‘We don’t want to go home with an ugly reputation,’ he said.

Collingwood’s suspension on Thursday has raised the possibility of Smith being able to lock horns with stand-in skipper Kevin Pietersen, an old adversary. It is safe to say the two are not on each other’s Christmas card lists and the visiting captain will watch events at Lord’s on Saturday closely to see how Pietersen copes leading England against New Zealand.

Smith said: ‘He is a key player in the set-up and how he handles the responsibility of captaincy is going to be very important for England. It is going to be a real challenge for him.’

Going into the first Test at Lord’s, starting on July 10, Smith sees similarities with the series in South Africa in the winter of 2004-05 — which England won 2-1 — only this time the roles have been reversed. It is his team with the consistency of selection and winning momentum.

‘In that last series England were a very settled outfit who had won a lot of Test matches together,’ he said. ‘Everyone knew their role. We are in that position here while they are probably in the position we were in back then, deciding what direction they want the team to go in and who they want to pick.’

Meanwhile, South Africa have hired former England spinner Jeremy Snape, 35, as their performance coach.